Sunday, February 12, 2017

Destinations :: Madurai & Kodai Kanal

After
taking in the three seas to our heart’s content we were off for Madurai on way
to Kodaikanal. About four hours’ bus trip brought us to Madurai, the city of
the famed Minakshi temple. On the way we passed Nagarcoil, a town which is
practically enclosed in the folds of the Western Ghats – very green and
picturesque. Madurai too is a temple town. In the South there are famous
temples like in Thanjavur or Trinchinapally or Kanchipuram but along with them
there are also numerous other temples revered if not as much as the ones that
are famous but are given their due attention and devotion. Apparently, the
southern part of the country has Hinduism thriving even today with a large
number of ancient temples with living deities, extraordinary temple
architecture and beautiful temple sculptures.

Madurai
is also a temple-town but Meenakshi Temple is the one that dominates the town.
It is also the most ancient, built around a couple of thousand years ago
dedicated to Parvati, also known as Meenakshi – the fish-eyed consort of Lord
Shiva. The temple is the heart of the city and life in Madurai revolves round
it. It is a massive and a very imposing temple and several other religious
spaces are widely dispersed in its

Another view of Menakshi temple

complex. The top of the main temple over the
sanctum attains the height of more than 160 ft. The temple has as many as 14
what are known as gopurams which, in fact are towered gateways. The one in the
South is reported to be the tallest – around 170 ft, taller than even the one
on the main temple by a few feet. The exterior walls are heavily worked on with
sculpted human figures, which I found rather garishly painted. These occupy the
walls on all sides and are reckoned to be 33000 or so in number. They have not
left on inch of vacant plain wall.

Kodai Kanal lake

Somewhere
around the temple or inside it I remember to have seen the Hall of Thousand
Pillars, each pillar having beautifully sculpted sculptures. Instead of a
thousand there are in fact 985 pillars. If one were to stand near any one of
them one would find some in line with it and others in orderly rows

The
temple must have had a lot of gold as it attracted the Muslim raiders from up
North. It was sacked in the 14th Century by Malik Kafur an eunuch
and also a general with Allauddin Khiljee. The temple was thereafter rebuilt in
the 16th Century. Subsequent years and centuries seem to have passed
off peacefully as no further damage apparently was done either to the town or
to the temple.

Both of us at Kodai Kanal

While
coming away from the temple I found my pocket had been picked. I didn’t even
get a whiff of it until I looked for my wallet in my hip pocket. It was a
strange irony that in a holy place such instances of thievery could take place.
People must be chanting holy mantras all through the 24 hours and yet indulge
in such evil activities. I eventually took it as a minor aberration. I didn’t
have too much of money in it, anyway. So we moved on without bothering to get
involved in a police case.

Kodaikanal

We
had heard of Kodaikanal as one of the finest hill stations of the country. We
had already been to Ooty which was, indeed, very beautiful with hills and
meadows as also a lake. However, on a subsequent visit to it with a friend in
2003 we were devastated to find it ruined with crowds, buses and dieselized
vehicles emitting pungent smoke from their exhausts. My wife and I could not
bear to spend even five minutes on once-beautiful Charing Cross as we were
racked by fits of coughing. We instantly decided to turn back to Coimbatore.

Somewhere near Bryant Park

It
was around a four hour’s bus journey to Kodaikanal. On the way there was that
post office which had got the award of being the best in the country sometime
in the 1970s. It was located in Shenbaganur, up on the hills where the post
master used to be a English priest from the local church. If I recall it was
located at a turn from where the climb on to Western Ghats for Kodaikanal became
very steep.

Kodaikanal
turned out to be more than 6000 ft. in elevation. It is located on the eastern
slopes of the Western Ghats in the District of Dindigul and has what is known
as the sub tropical highland climate. The temperature seldom climbs above 20
degrees during the day or dips below 8 degrees Centigrade at night. It has,
therefore a very agreeable climate. Its very name suggests that the place is a
“gift of the forests” and probably therefore has exquisite flora in the shape
of forest cover with various exotic species and a range of flowering and
fruiting trees. The pears grown here are supposed to be of finest variety.
Likewise the huge dahlias in Bryant’s Park are a sight to be

Another part of the Lake

seen.

Established
in the middle of the 19th Century, Kodaikanal was, again, a
discovery by the British who colonized it to get away from the hot and sweaty
climate down below in the then Madras Presidency which was mostly infested with
mosquitoes. It has lovely walks all around. What is more, there is a lake
which, again, is man-made and is a charming place to hang around – quiet and
serene as it was. And so was the small township.

But now, I understand, it is one of the most
visited places in Tamil Nadu. The crowds during the tourist season are so thick
that the local

Once again, the Kodai Kanal Lake

administration has to call for additional strength of policemen
to control traffic and orderly parking. It seems all the good and decent places
are being ruined by overload of tourists. This has also happened with the hill
stations up North and it is now happening in the South. Tourism of all kinds
seems to be proving to be bane for the tourist sites.

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About Me

There would seem to be no point in talking about the position I used to hold. What is more relevant today is that I am retired from the service of government of India where I worked for thirty four years in senior positions ending just below the top of my department. I retired more than twenty years ago. To be fruitfully engaged I took to blogging and writing articles, initially, on local issues but now for years I have been writing on topical and environmental matters. The writings in the local supplement of a national daily gave me some kind of a positive identity in the town which culminated in my being nominated to be a founder member of Bhopal Citizens' Forum, a powerful pressure group. I am , I think, fruitfully engaged and I have no complaints against life.